Month: July 2016

Plenty of Pressure

VVT Oil Pressure Warmed Up

Last Friday’s faux blueprint image is what I gave to the Valve Store’s Tool Room guys to fabricate for me. I wanted to check what kind of oil pressure I have been getting at the top of the valve cover at the VVT’s oil control valve. I was tempted to get a kit from Harbor Freight so I could check the pressure at the spot where the car’s gauge sender sits on the block as a start. If that was good I’d figure a way to check it at the top.

Before buying I decided to query the MMC to see if anyone had one I could borrow. I got a no, a no, a maybe and a yes, but I’d need my own hose and adapter to screw into the block. The maybe turned into a no, so I went with the bare gauge option. Looking at the engine diagram I noticed that the feed for the tube running along the top of valve cover comes through a solid metal line right from the same spot as the oil gauge sender. Because that spot is not easy to get to and I would need a hose, I opted to make an adapter to hook up to the end of the valve cover inlet line.

If I had good oil pressure at the top of the engine I was done, the P0012 issue would have to then be the actuator on the end of the cam shaft or the ECU. If it was bad there, I’d get a hose and check what it was at the sender location. If the pressure was good there the problem would be in that oil line somewhere, if it was bad there I’d have big problems, like engine bearing problems. How come I didn’t just rely on the cars oil pressure gauge you ask, well because it is just basically an idiot light in the shape of a gauge. It reads in the middle of the range if there is a mere 7psi of pressure present, it should be at least twice that at idle when warm and 40 & up at 3,000 RPM.

With a cold engine the gauge was shaking around 60psi at idle and once the car warmed up it settled in where you see it above, around 40psi. I have no idea how calibrated that gauge is, but I’m now comfortable saying that oil pressure is not the problem. And at the risk of jinxing something, we are now in the middle of the second round of high detergent Rotella T6 oil and it has been almost 4 weeks since the last check engine light. The ugly exhaust note above 4,000 RPM at heavy throttle is still there though, maybe it is totally unrelated to the VVT issue even though it seemed to go away when I had the oil control valve disconnected.

Retro Car Design

I’m really kind of too lazy to actually pin down the real facts on the wild and woolly interwebs, so I’m just going to rely on my somewhat reliable memory and say the VW did it first with the New Beetle in 1998. They sold a bunch of them, so a trend was born. Car makers looked back 40-50 years and redesigned their old icons into something that looked like it had a linear progression of incremental design changes to get to the present.

1974-2014 VW Beetle

The Beetle really never changed much from its original design in its first 40 years, then it went away for a couple decades before the new one reappeared. The Mustang on the other hand went all over the place design-wise for its first 40 years, but when Ford redesigned it in the mid 2000’s they re-imagined it like it had stayed close to the original design over the years. The results, in my eyes, were perfect. I was not the only one either, sales jumped.

1968-2007 Ford Mustang

After the retro/new Mustang was a hit, the other two remaining muscle car rivals dot the treatment as well. Both the Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro nameplates were revived and they too became sales successes. Didn’t hurt that along with the modernization of the exteriors they now had roughly twice the horsepower of the earlier incarnations, but the drove and handled like a modern car should.

The Fiat 124 has followed the Beetle/Challenger/Camaro route in that after its original run from the 60’s to the 80’s it went the way of the Dodo, like pretty much all the other 2-door convertible sports cars. Well, this year the Fiat 124 spider was re-born and it is only fitting that the car that brought the 2-seat convertible sports car back to life in the 90’s, the Miata, became the basis for this new Italian roadster.

1966-2017 Fiat 124 Spider

I think the designers succeeded nicely in creating a car that looks as if it has continuously updated and modernized in increments over the past 40 years, especially considering they were locked into using the same uni-body underpinnings of the current brand new generation of the Miata.

Brian Sees A Fiata1

It has been a few months since we’ve been to Brueggers Bagels for breakfast. The main reason for this is no matter what we tried, those bagels we brought home never tasted as good as they did on the day we bought them. We froze them, we froze them in the store’s special freezer bags, we kept them in plain paper bags (both in the fridge and on the counter) and by Friday they tasted just like the “bagel” we could get at Dunkin Donuts.

Ever since Donna had declared the new Miata ugly, I have been waiting for the new Fiat 124 to arrive because it is basically a Miata in an Italian designed body hoping that she just might find it handsome. Of the two, I prefer the Miata, but the Fiat was very nice looking in pictures, so I kind of wanted to see one up close for my self as well. The 124 Spiders just started arriving at dealers in early July. Right now they are all automatics for whatever reason, but that was OK, I just wanted to look.

A couple of weeks ago some of the Fiats began showing up “close” to us like Charlotte and Atlanta which were way too far away to just pop over and take a peek. JTs Fiat in Lexington is the closest one to us in Aiken at 40 miles and they received their first 124 Spider, in black, last weekend. JTs was literally right next to the Brueggers, so when Donna suggested that maybe we should get a bagel for breakfast on Saturday, I readily agreed.

When I pulled into the bagel place I noticed that the building was still there, but there were zero cars in the lot. They had pulled up stakes and moved somewhere else. It had to have been extremely recent though as the dealer’s website still has that next door address on it and the map still shows that spot as the destination on their contact page. Donna asked, “Do you want to try and find the new place?” “I have no idea where to start looking,” I replied, “but we could head a little further east to get on I-20 to go home and maybe we’d stumble on it.”

A mile and a half later we passed a brand new car dealership on the left that had popped up in the last 3 months. It was a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealer and it said JTs on the building. Maybe I was imagining it, but I could have sworn I saw a Fiat 500 parked amongst the SUVs. Then the proverbial light bulb illuminated and I put Fiat owning Chrysler together and said, “I’m making a U-turn.” It was early enough still that the dealership was not open for business yet, but there were a few cars already lining up at the service department. I cruised past them and made my way over towards where I thought I saw the 500. They had some of the gates still closed, so we parked the Miata and started wandering through the huge side lot (I’m betting salesmen will have to drive you out to look at cars on golf carts.)

There, way in the back, were the Fiats, a few regular 500s, lots of insect looking 500x Trekkings and the lone black 124 Spider. It hadn’t been fully prepped yet, there was still plastic wrapping on the interior bits and it was dirty, but I liked the looks. It could definitely be my fall-back car. I asked Donna, what she thought, she said, “Not impressed.”

Thinking it had to do with that color and my plans for a black Miata, then spending more to wrap it a different color, I thought if I offered up a different color… “How about in red?” I asked. (Donna had once suggested the new Miata in red) There was just the one black Spider on the lot, so I pointed at a red 500 nearby, “Like that.” She glanced where I was pointing and said, “No way.” Feeling slightly frustrated by this whole process, I blurted out, “Now you are just making shit up to not let me buy a new car.” And maybe because I had a smile in my voice when I said it, it fortunately cracked her up with laughter.

When she stopped laughing, Donna asked me, “Well what do you want?” So I said, “A range from at the top of a black Miata wrapped in bright blue… she said, “No way.” before I could go any further… to a white Miata, to at the bottom, a Fiata in any color you’d find acceptable.” She laughed again and nothing further was discussed on the new car, the rest of the way home.

1. As long as I’m a Miata owner this car will always be referred to as a Fiata, but if I ever end up with one, I will try and make sure I call it by its proper name, 124 (Spider.)

27 Years Ago – Part II

Here’s what convinced me to go test drive a Miata. All of the July issues of the mainstream auto magazines in 1989 had a cover article on it. After thumbing through every one that I found on the shelf of the local Food Lion, I chose the Motor Trend to take home and read. I still have it.

I’ve included the add for the BMG Compact Disc Club for an additional bit of nostalgia. At one time I was a member (probably in tandem right along with the Columbia House one as well.)

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 205

27 Years Ago

1/4 NPT Adapter Plate

I’ve written a page with the story of how long it took to buy my first Miata (Brian Buys A Miata) and it took 108 days from first test drive to driving it home. I’ve even written a blog post showing the Birth Announcement of its arrival on the 7th of November. Earlier this week, knowing it was around this time of year, I wondered just what day it was when I put that deposit down. Backing up 108 days from the November pick up date and you come up with today, July 22nd which was a Saturday that year.

Bernie Sanders Comes To Aiken

Bernie Sanders Action Figure

Making good on his promise to personally thank each and everyone of the donors to his Presidential Primary Campaign, Senator Bernie Sanders is on his way to visit (track his progress) yours truly for my $1 contribution. He is starting out in Cranbury, NJ today and should be here hopefully by Saturday because he has to turn right around and get to Philadelphia, PA by Monday for the start of the Democratic National Convention.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 204

Instructions To Seniors Need To Be Clear

Friday afternoon, I went over to the local Bass Pro Shop to get a 9mm handgun for home/personal protection. When I was ready to pay for the pistol and some ammo, the cashier said, “Strip down, facing me.”

Making a mental note to complain to the NRA about the gun control wackos running amok, I did just as she had instructed.

When the hysterical shrieking and alarms finally subsided, I found out she was referring to how I should place my credit card in the card reader!!! I’ve been asked to shop elsewhere in the future.

I still don’t think I looked that bad………..probably just need to wear underwear more often!

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 203

You haven’t blogged in a week and all you can come up with is a joke you got via email? Yep, but I promise, the boys in the lab are cooking up something good.